Additional Comments on Critiques
Posted by latoga | Filed under Musings
It was almost a year ago to the day that 
I wrote about my frustrations Searching for An Honest Critique. Yesterday I was (trying) to clear some of the backlog on my desk by reading through a few of the LensWorks that have piled up (I have special corner for all my photography related to reads). This is when I came a cross the article by Brooks Jensen entitled Some Comments on Print Commentaries in issue 69.
While this article focuses primarily on critiques of prints, the comments can be applied to giving feedback on anything, artistic or not. In my experiences, all humans have a tendency to immediately start telling someone what they don’t like about a item. This is the easiest thing for us to do. It takes practice and conscious effort to provide more value than that. It’s very similar to collecting usability feedback for software. You want to place a person in front of a new piece of software, give them a set of tasks to do and have them say what they are thinking. You learn so much more by understanding what people are thinking.
When it comes to critiques, Jensen hits the nail right on the head:
“Show your work to a hundred different people and you will get a hundred differnt opinions, none of them correct and all of them valid.”
This is why I try not to give critiques unless I’m asked…something, that if you ask my wife, I still have a long way to go with. And when I’m asked, I force myself to drop back to “software testing mode”, and just start saying what I’m noticing and thinking. But I try to say it in the form of a question. If I notice that the horizon is not level, I’ll say “Hmm, why did you not make the horizon level?”. It’s pointing out a possible problem with out stepping all over the photographer’s feelings.
Sometimes direct and to the point is need, but I have found the best photography commentary is give by walking softly and leaving the big stick behind.
The Most Expensive Photo You Ever Bought
Posted by latoga | Filed under Uncategorized
Tonight I was catching up on working my way through the collection of LensWork Podcast archives that I downloaded a few months back. I’m glad Brooks Jensen uploaded the entire collection of his podcasts to his website, I have found it interesting to listen to some if his earlier thoughts…i.e., 2-3 years ago…and see the commonalities to things that happened in the industry shortly after his recording.
Something about episode LW0075, The Fantasy Market for Photographs, that I found interesting. The correlation of what a photographer charges for a print of their work versus the most that they have every paid for a print themselves.
My philosophy here is that I would rather have people enjoy my work by buying a print at a reasonable price than feel that they have to save up for a print. This, coupled with my lack of an egocentrically view of my work, means that I price my prints in a range that allows me to make some money off of them but also places them in the disposable income range for most people. The most popular sizes of an 8×12 print sells for $20 while the 12×18 print sells for $35 and larger sizes for more based upon my cost.
Now, I admit that I use a photo printing lab to do the printing on archive quality photo paper and distribute the orders. That is why I refer to these prints as art prints. If I were to take extra time to print these images myself on art quality rag mat paper to my precise printing standards, I would have to charge more–but I would also limit the number of prints that I would make due to constraints on my time. I have a select set of images that I plan on doing this with in the near future. And I will appropriately refer to them as Limited Edition Fine Art Prints, but I still plan on keeping their price in a reasonable range. (The main reason I haven’t to date is the lack of ability to sell these via my current website.)
But, have I ever paid that much for a print that I bought from another photographer?
Yes. The sidebar My Photo Purchases lists the photographers that I own prints of. The majority of prints that I have bought fall in the same range of what I charge for my art prints and are what I would also refer to as art prints.
The interesting part is when you start to talk about the most that you, as a photographer, have ever paid or a print. Personally, I have paid almost $200 for an Ansel Adam Yosemite Special Edition Print that I appreciate every day on the wall of my office. (Half Dome, Merced River, Winter if your curious…) And I felt that it was an appropriate amount to pay for a print made from the original negative and printed by Alan Ross to Ansel Adam’s original specifications.
But I’m curious. All you fellow photographers out there, what is the most expensive photo you have ever purchased? (How does that compare to the prices you charge for your own work?)
Tags: Lenswork, Photography Business, Prints
LensWork Let Down
Posted by latoga | Filed under Uncategorized
The only photography magazine that I read regularly and subscribe to is LensWork. That fact that there are no advertisements, that there are three photographer’s work featured in each issue with a significant number of images from each, and that focus on the creative process are what got me hooked. Truly an Photographic Art magazine.
And then there is the print quality. As a photography magazine, the team behind LensWork (photographers themselves) take great care in the print quality. Each issue comes in a sturdy cardboard envelope. I open each issue on the day it arrives and take great care in handling it. I want to keep each in pristine condition. I keep the envelope and store the issue in it until I’m done reading (this is because I typically read my issues while I’m sitting on airplanes, so the envelope absorbs all the abuse of my briefcase). I view each issue as a collectors item.
So I was quite disappointed a few days ago when my latest issue arrive and the envelope was severely bent. It appear as if the magazine was bent in half across the spine! Oh, how disappointing. Not that I’m disappointed with LensWork, more with the postal service who abused my fine work of art.
As I thought about this more and more, I realized that this is more of a statement toward the state of the photography magazine industry than anything else. I go to the book store and I see dozens upon dozens of photography magazine. Most are crammed full of ads that don’t add any value to me. Even the only commercial photography magazines that I used to like have let me down. Practical Photography and Photography Monthly (competing magazines published out of the UK) were always different than their American counter parts. But lately, I can tell you exactly what each issue’s cover will look like because it’s the same as every other issue…and on both magazines. The next issue will be October’s and it will have a title of “Take your Best Fall Landscapes Yet!”. They will both have great images of the UK landscape, some great tips on shooting, editing, etc. And I won’t find anything exciting about much of it…ok, mildly excited about the landscape images.
And yet I get excited about each issue of LensWork. Like every publisher (whether in print, electronic, or even audio) there are things to gripe about or disagreements with editorials…and that’s a good thing. But I don’t keep old issues of other magazines around as collector’s items.
Which just means that I have to head out to the book store to pick up an un-crushed copy of issue 72.
Tags: Lenswork
Save the Landscape, Kill the Billboard!
Posted by latoga | Filed under Uncategorized
Yesterday, while trotting along on the treadmill at the gym, I became absorbed in the LensWork Podcast Advertising and the Signal to Noise Ratio. Brooks Jensen was talking about the amount of advertising (noise) that we as a society generate in comparison to the signal (valuable content). After lamenting on how advertising free his life is (not an easy thing to do, so bravo Brooks!) he comments on how this relates to trying to raise awareness of your photography today…essentially trying to provide a high signal to noise ratio instead of the inverse.
Common to how most ideas form, this got me thinking about a posting that I saw back in April on goldengod’s blog about how the city of São Paulo bans billboard advertising. Apparently, São Paulo Brazil has had municipal guidelines in place to control the proliferation of billboards, but the advertisers were not following them so São Paulo’s government cracked down and went draconian with the enforcement.
I think this is great! One of my photographic passions is landscape photography. Nothing is more annoying that having a wonderful vista being ruined by a huge billboard. Living in the San Francisco Bay Area, we have our share of billboards along the highways and in the cities. However, on a recent trip to visit my parents in
Outside of outright physical destruction of the landscape, the largest scare that we place on it is billboards. We decrease the signal to noise ratio of nature by placing huge 150 foot long billboards right in front of the beautiful forest, just so we all know that there is a McDonald’s at the next exit. While I understand the importance of marketing and messaging, I wouldn’t shed a tear if more locals in the US
Tags: Billboards, Landscapes, Lenswork
LensWork Podcast Archive Online
Posted by latoga | Filed under Uncategorized
So tonight I was doing some work in the office, fired up iTunes and noticed five minutes later that it was still downloading “stuff”. Usually iTunes takes only a few minutes to get caught up on my podcast subscriptions (even when I’ve been on the road for a week), so this caught my attention.
Low and behold, what do I see being downloaded…the entire archive of LensWork Podcasts on Photography and the Creative Process! I know Brooks Jensen has been working on getting the entire archive online for a while now. Thank you for making it available!
If you aren’t familiar with this podcast, I highly suggest that you check them out. Brooks Jensen has a wonderful eye and mind for photography. Even though his focus tends to be on fine art photography, many of the topics he discusses can be extended well beyond that. The episodes in this podcast average about 3 minutes in length, so they are perfect for helping you “think about photography everyday” (one of my favorite quotes from Jensen that will eventually make it into the FocalPower Random Quote widget database).
LensWork has recently launched a second podcast series as well. LensWork Vision of the Heart podcast series does a deeper exploration of the photography that is showcased within LensWork. These podcasts average about 15 minutes in length as they discuss specific photographer’s work in greater detail. This is a great way to increase your critical eye for photography. Of course, being photography, it helps if you have the images in front of you…
Which is why I also recommend checking out LensWork magazine at your local bookstore. This photography magazine is the only one that I subscribe to as it is about photography and not advertising. I keep the last few issues proudly displayed on my coffee table (and the rest carefully protected as collectibles).
Thanks for all your continued efforts Brook! Keep up the great work!
